IceHogs' Morin heats up just when team needs it

Wednesday

Jeremy Morin wanted to be more productive this season. The way he’s finishing it, maybe he’ll get to where he wanted anyway.

Jeremy Morin wanted to be more productive this season. The way he’s finishing it, maybe he’ll get to where he wanted anyway.

He got his Rockford IceHogs’ only score in a 3-1 loss to Hamilton last week. Then he got a huge goal to make it 1-1 with Houston on Saturday late in the second period in an eventual 4-1 win.

He has 16 goals and 19 assists in 61 games. He had eight goals and four assists in 22 games last season, when he also notched two scores in nine games with the Blackhawks.

“I’ve been up and down, trying to find some consistency,” he said. “Obviously, I’d like to have had a little better year. I’m trying to play well, play hard and let the results come.”

The second-year left winger will be judged in big part by his offensive numbers.

“Trying to be a goal-scorer is tough,” he said. “Sometimes the pucks go in all the time, and sometimes you have six shots on net and two quality chances and none go in.

“It’s been that kind of a year. I can’t get caught up in that. All I can do is come every night and try and help my team win and develop other parts of my game.”

Sounds funny, but…

Ted Dent shrugged off his team being outshot 16-3 in the third period and getting only five shots on net in the final half of Friday’s 2-1 win over Houston.

“That’s OK because we outshot a lot of teams this year and lost games, so I’m serious,” he said. “It seems like when we do outshoot teams, we lose. And when we get outshot, we win.”

It’s been that way most of the season. Rockford now is only 22-20-1-2 when winning the shots battle and 10-6-0-3 when it doesn’t.

Beach’s second career

Kyle Beach spent some of his off time from shoulder surgery coaching a 9-10 Junior IceHogs team. It had a great season by most standards — with one hitch.

“Unfortunately, we came up one game short,” he said. “We lost one game all year and somehow it cost us the finals.

“It was a lot of fun. I saw half of (the team) out here (Friday) with signs, which was pretty cool for me. It was a great experience for me.”

Hutton the workhorse

When you’ve been putting up the numbers Carter Hutton has been, you’re going to keep playing. And playing. And playing. And not complaining.

“I’m no stranger to playing 3-in-3s and 4-in-5s,” he said of playing a lot of games on consecutive nights or in a compact stretch. “Obviously, I like it. That’s why you work hard in the summer, for times like this so your body is ready for it.”

And he played all three games over the weekend — and won all three games.
Gee, guess who’ll be in net Friday.

Captain’s hat fits Fahey

Brian Fahey took over as captain after Brandon Segal was traded and has enjoyed the responsibility.

“It’s been interesting,” he said. “Our team has made a lot of strides. I think the guys have definitely learned a lot over the last few months.”

“I thought it started a little after Christmas time. We pulled together and played a lot better hockey, simplifying things. Unfortunately, we didn’t start doing this sooner or we’d be a little further up in the competitive race.”